C$ strengthens to 1-week high as greenback dips

2 Min Read

A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the "Loonie", is pictured in this illustration picture taken in Toronto January 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened to a one-week high against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, one day after U.S. President Donald Trump revived prospects for the Keystone XL pipeline and as the greenback suffered broader losses.

The U.S. dollar .DXY tumbled to a seven-week low against a basket of currencies on worries that Trump was focusing too much on protectionism and isolationism, and not enough on pro-growth policies.

A more protectionist United States would threaten Canada’s economy. But Canadian officials are convinced Mexico will suffer the most damage from changes to the North American Free Trade agreement, under which Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States.

Trump signed orders on Tuesday smoothing the path for Keystone. If constructed, the pipeline would provide oil producers in Canada with a quicker route to send crude to U.S. Gulf Coast refiners. Oil is one of Canada’s major exports.

At 9:24 a.m. ET (1424 GMT), the Canadian dollar CAD=D4 was trading at C$1.3121 to the greenback, or 76.21 U.S. cents, stronger than Tuesday’s close of C$1.3161, or 75.98 U.S. cents.

The currency’s weakest level of the session was C$1.3163, while it touched its strongest since Jan. 18 at C$1.3087.

Gains for the Canadian dollar came even as oil fell. U.S. crude CLc1 prices were down 1.03 percent at $52.63 a barrel after builds in U.S. inventories reinforced expectations that increasing shale output this year would reduce the impact of production cuts by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major exporters. [O/R]

Canadian government bond prices were lower across the yield curve in sympathy with U.S. Treasuries as gains for global stocks reduced investor demand for safe-haven assets, such as bonds.

The two-year CA2YT=RR fell 3.5 Canadian cents to yield 0.809 percent, and the 10-year CA10YT=RR declined 33 Canadian cents to yield 1.798 percent, its highest since Dec. 28.